


Co-Captains. Friends. Lovers.

by snaeken



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Kissing in the Rain, Lacrosse, M/M, Mentions of Canonical Mental Health Issues, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2020-09-24 21:55:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20365705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snaeken/pseuds/snaeken
Summary: Struggling with his mental health, Liam thinks practicing lacrosse might help get it under control. Someone else is already there when he arrives at the field.





	Co-Captains. Friends. Lovers.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [parttimehuman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/parttimehuman/gifts).

> For Mercy, for the kissing prompt: Liam/Nolan, in the rain, confessing feelings <3  
Couldn't have come at a better time, after all the recent Nolan hate going around.

Liam had headphones on as he walked, which is why he didn't sense the other person's heartbeat before physically seeing them. He stops at the edge of the lacrosse field and blinks, surprise turning to admiration as he watches Nolan net ball after ball, the line he had set out quickly dwindling.

It's not until Nolan gathers up all of the balls to line them up again that he turns around, jumping when he sees Liam. He's still a tad skittish, but he's working on it. They're all working on things.

"This is the third time now," Liam calls, removing his headphones and approaching Nolan. The other boy resumes lining the balls up in front of the goal again and Liam dumps his gym bag at the side of the field.

The last two times his head has been a swirling mess of guilt and regret and anxiety, the last two times his Risperdal and coping techniques haven't been enough to keep his IED at bay, Liam has come to the lacrosse field to practice.

The last two times, Nolan was already there, breathing heavily, a sheen of sweat on his skin. And now makes three.

"Co-captain," Liam smiles, coaxing one from Nolan in return. Despite that, the other boy's pulse beats an anxious staccato in his chest. Not for the first time, Liam wishes he could tune it out, or at the very least turn it down. Instead he's left listening to the uneven, disconnected thumps of Nolan's heartbeat until he takes his shots again, every single one going straight into the goal. Nolan's good. Really good.

It's not until Nolan's lining up the balls again that Liam realises he hasn't actually spoken yet.

"You too, huh?"

This gets Nolan's attention. He drops his lacrosse stick, instead putting his hands deep into the pockets of his shorts. When he turns around, he has his bottom lip sucked firmly between his teeth.

"Yeah," he finally admits. "Practice is the only thing that makes it stop. It grounds me. Keeps me in the moment. You get it, right?"

“Like you wouldn’t believe.”

Liam’s mental health took a turn for the worse after the war, struggling to process the things that had happened, the losses they had all endured. He booked an emergency appointment with his psychiatrist and when he got there, Nolan was already in the waiting room. It’s something else the two have slowly bonded over, things in common between them which has cemented their relationship as co-captains, as friends.

“So,” Liam says. Nolan blinks, refocusing. “Do you want to keep shooting at an empty net, or do you want me to get in goal?”

Nolan gives him a wry smile. “You’re on.”

Liam’s earlier point stands - Nolan is good.

Despite his heightened senses and knowledge of how the other boy plays, Nolan is able to score against him with ease on numerous shots, Liam missing almost as many shots as he manages to save. The same happens when they swap around, Liam trying to score with Nolan in goal. They’re very evenly matched, leaving Liam impressed yet again with Nolan’s lacrosse abilities. Despite being co-captain of the team, he doesn’t get nearly enough credit for how good he is. Anyone who can hold their own against supernaturals is impressive, in Liam’s books.

Nolan pauses for a drink, sighing when he finds his water bottle empty. Liam takes a gulp from his own and tells Nolan to catch, throwing it to him.

“Thanks. You had enough yet?”

“Nope. You?”

“Nope.”

They grin at each other and pick up their sticks. Nolan scoops up a ball and breaks into a run, yelling over his shoulder, “Bet you can’t stop me scoring in the other goal!”

“Cheater!” Liam splutters, tearing up the field after Nolan. The other boy cackles when Liam slips on the grass and almost loses his footing; it’s been raining lightly for awhile, not heavy enough to put either of them off or truly bother them, but enough to make running like this just a little bit trickier.

Liam is nothing if not competitive and there’s no way he’s letting Nolan get one up on him like that. They’re not yet within Nolan’s comfortable scoring distance, but with there being nobody else on the field it’s quite literally an open goal.

Nolan raises his stick, ready to throw, and he’s annoyingly just out of Liam’s reach. But if Nolan wants to play dirty, so can Liam.

The other boy may be out of reach, but his _stick_ isn’t.

Liam grabs it, throwing Nolan off balance. The other boy yelps in surprise and in his moment of weakness, Liam takes the opportunity to tackle him to the ground. The ground is slick, verging on muddy and they slide for a few yards in a tangle of limbs, blades of grass sticking to them, mud coating their clothes, their skin.

"Got you," Liam smirks down at Nolan. He rolls his eyes, laughing when he tries to move but Liam keeps him pinned underneath him.

"You cheated."

"So did you."

Nolan wriggles beneath him again, although he isn't trying very hard; Liam's sure if he really wanted up, he would find a way. Liam is enjoying his victory too much to budge, and when that fact becomes clear to Nolan he sighs and closes his eyes, resting his head on the ground.

There's something slightly off with his face though, and it takes a moment for Liam to work out what it is - there are flecks of mud on his cheeks and his nose.

To the untrained eye they could easily blend in with his freckles, however Liam knows him much better than that by now.

"Hold on, you've got mud on your face."

"You big disgrace?"

"Dork," Liam laughs. Nolan keeps his eyes closed but cracks a smile. He brushes his thumb across Nolan's left cheek, the light drizzle of rain helping him easily wipe away the mud. He moves onto the right cheek, and finally the bridge of his nose. The mud is all gone, but Liam tenderly brushes his thumb against Nolan's nose again anyway. "I've always loved your freckles."

“What?”

Nolan is staring right at him, and although the expression on his face is indecipherable, the spiking staccato rhythm of his pulse, just as hectic as it was when he first arrived at the field, is enough to send Liam's own heartbeat into disarray.

"I-" Liam starts. The heat of embarrassment prickles in his armpits and he rolls off of Nolan onto the damp muddy grass, allowing the other boy to sit up. There's been _something_ between them for awhile now, something neither boy has acted on. Even as far back as at the hospital, when Monroe and Gerard and the Anuk-ite were still running rampant, Nolan had briefly but very blatantly glanced at his lips. Nothing came of it and it was never mentioned.

"Liam, what did you say?" His tone is soft, inquisitive. It's calming enough to give Liam the courage to say it again.

"I said... I said I've always loved your freckles."

"You do?" Nolan asks. Between his own anxiety and the rain, Liam's tenuous ability to read chemosignals is even shakier than usual. However there's definitely a scent he associates with happiness, tinged with something a bit sweeter. Something that could be--

Lust?

He gets his answer when Nolan glances at his lips again, just as blatant as when they were at the hospital. However this time, he doesn't glance away again. Nolan shuffles over and straddles his lap, a deceptive amount of muscle mass hidden in his wiry frame. They stare at each other, leaning in slowly, so slowly, blinking the rainwater out of their eyelashes until they're finally nose to nose, foreheads pressed together.

From this distance the scents coming from Nolan are unmistakable. He likes Liam the same way Liam likes him.

"How did you keep it hidden?"

"I'm trained. Remember?" Nolan says, his words tinged with regret. "Emotional layering. I keep my anxiety, depression and the rest on the surface to cover up what's really going on underneath."

"You're not hiding it now."

"No."

Liam takes the final step. He lets his eyes flutter shut, closing the little distance still between them to kiss Nolan. The other boy reciprocates immediately, kissing him back soft and slow, their mouths smooth with the aid of rain.

"I liked you even when I was scared of you," Nolan breathes against him. His heartrate is still high with anxiety, with excitement, but it stays steady.

The rain gets heavier as their kiss gets deeper, pouring down around them in the field, their clothes sticking to their skin and their fringes plastering against their foreheads.

Liam does something he's wanted to do for awhile; he sucks Nolan's bottom lip into his mouth, the one he's always anxiously biting down on, and bites down on it himself. Nolan groans into his mouth, his hands roving up underneath Liam's shirt.

They kiss and they kiss and they kiss.

Co-captains. Friends. Lovers.


End file.
